fairweatherrunner

running blog

Monthly Archives: July 2012


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1000 km

Yesterday I got out for a second attempt at my long run.  I left it until after 6pm, took lots of water and tried to keep to the shade.  It was still hard work and my legs were far from fresh, but it was so much better than Sunday!  I managed 8.32 miles and am now feeling more confident about TR24 at the weekend and my night-time double lap!

During that run my mileage to date in 2012 passed the 1000km (or 621 miles) milestone which was my total in 2011.  At the end of last year I quietly challenged myself to run 1000 miles (1600km) in 2012… barring injury, with my marathon training it looks like I might make it.

Monthly running mileage 2011, 2012.


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Marathon training started… eventually.

So I’m back from my holiday and my marathon training plan started last week.  It wasn’t the full on enthusiastic start I might have imagined and certainly not like my enthusiasm to get going when I started training for my first half marathon this time 3 years ago!

Day one of my plan, Monday was Rest Day – great I could do that! Just as well because I had a marathon of washing and ironing to do! Day two, 3 easy miles…  didn’t go to plan. Morning dentist appointments prevented a morning run and then waiting or younger son to contact me (ET phone home!) and tell me when he was coming home dragged the day out. He finally turned up at six and I mustered my enthusiasm for a run only to spend 20 minutes on the phone catching up with a friend.  So finally a last chance dash out the door and I stood for 10 minutes waiting for my garmin to get a signal.  No luck I walked down the road and waited a bit longer, still no signal.. I gave up and walked home in a huff to cook super and poured myself a glass of wine.  Run 1 fail!

So on Wednesday I did make it out and I ran not only the 30 mins easy from my plan but 6 miles as also training for Thunder Run next weekend!  Run 1 take 2 success!

I was also scheduled to run on Thursday (day 4), and hummed and ahhed.  I wanted to go to BMF on Friday so in the end swapped my rest day and went to BMF on Friday morning (run 2) and added 4 miles in the evening (run 3) thinking that endurance would be good pre TR24 plus alternative days would help my legs recover in between.

Sunday’s long run also didn’t go to plan.  I left it too late, it was hot, I maybe should have eaten better the night before, and drunk less wine… so I cut it shorter than what I had aimed for but about the right distance for my marathon plan week 1 long run. (Run 4).

Week 1.  4 workouts, 18.6 miles. 

15 weeks to go…. plus a few races in the meantime!


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Holiday

I had a lovely holiday in Portugal and whilst I didn’t completely veg out all the time…

I wasn’t as active as I could have been and my poor Garmin didn’t get its first chance to (try and) find a satellite in foreign climes! I saw lots of people out running along the river and over the bridges in Coimbra when we were walking into town for supper and felt very envious and keen to run (at that stage I’d not run for a week) but I chickened out not being quite brave enough to run alone in a foreign city.

And whilst I have to admit to eating lots of these (and a lot more besides),

I did do plenty of walking including lots of these,

plus a decent number of lengths in this,

and a couple of goes on this.

So it wasn’t all bad!

I also have to report that the Vivobarefoot trail shoes I bourght for my holiday were really comfortable and I have lived in them ever since. They are great on all surfaces (except for smooth shiny surfaces when wet! And I hadn’t even had a drink at that stage). I am going to try a few short trail or beach runs in them over the summer.


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Whats next?

Juneathon is over for another year so whats next?

Well,  first for the sake of my poor old little legs I’m having a couple of easier weeks (although this week I’ve taken it to extremes as I’ve been very busy and have only managed one BMF class!).  I’m away on holiday next week so will definitely be making use of the hotel treadmill for a couple of runs and trying to do lots of swimming to keep up my fitness because it all starts when I get back!

My marathon training for Rutland Water Marathon starts on 16th July and I’m taking part in the Addidas Thunder Run 24 at the end of July and the Isle of Wight Half Marathon mid August.

For TR24 we, (Alma, Louise, Carla, Chris, Linda, Lorraine, Jon and me) are Team “Fools Rushing” and aim to run 3 laps each of the 10K trail in the 24 hour period.  Current plans are for a few of us (including me) to run 2 laps together during the night and then another lap the next day.  My Longest day run was therefore very good training having run 12 miles one day and 8 the following morning.  It was also good for me that the 8 miles was quite hilly and partly off-road because the TR24 course is through fields and woods and apparently has a killer hill (I’m not looking at the course details too closely yet!).

For my marathon training I’m broadly following this plan from Bupa Running which is easy to follow, has appropriate length runs for me and fits well with my Autumn Half Marathons as build up races.  I need to adjust / add to it a bit at the start to get in a couple of longer runs between now and TR24 but at least I have a good mileage base of about 30 miles a week during Juneathon to build on.

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